desire a Saviour who hath no sence of his need O therefore blessed Lord do thou dayly more open my eyes that I may see my self to be among the sinzers and not among the righteous among the sick and not among the whole that so I may be healed by thee who camest not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance nor to save the whole but the sick Be thou my Physician and let me be thy Patient untill thou makest me to say I am not sick because thou hast forgiven me all mine iniquities Meditation XVI Vpon a Lamp and a Star SUch is the disparity between a Lamp and a Star as that happily it may not a little be wondred at why I should make a joynt Meditation of them which are so greatly distant in respect of place and far more in respect of quality the one being an earthly and the other an heavenly body What is a Lamp to a Star in regard of influence duration or beauty Hath it any quickning raies flowing from it Or is its light immortal so as not to become despised by expiring Can it dazle the beholder with its serene lustre and leave such impressions of it self upon the eye as may render it for a time blind to any other objects Alas these are too high and noble effects for such a feeble and uncertain light to produce and proper only to those glorious bodies that shine in the Firmament But yet this great inequallity between the one and the other serves to make them both more meet Emblems of the differing estate of Believers in this and the other life who in Scripture while they are on this side Heaven are compared to wise Virgins with Lamps burning and when they come to Heaven to Stars shining which endure for ever and ever Grace in the best of Saints is not perfect but must like a Lamp be fed with new supplies that it go not our and be often trimmed that it be not dim Ordinances are as necessary to Christians in this life as Manna to the Israelites in the wilderness though in Canaan it ceased And therefore God hath appointed his Word and Sacraments to drop continually upon the hearts of his Children as the two Olive trees upon the golden Candlestick What mean then those fond conceits of perfectists who dream of living above all subsidiary helps and judge Ordinances as useless to them as oyl for a Star or a snuffing of the Sun to make it shine more bright It is true when we come to heaven such things will be of no more use to our souls than meat or drink will be to our bodies but yet while we are on the Earth the body cannot live without the one nor the soul without the other Do thou therefore holy God perserve in me a due sense of my impotency and wants whose light is fading as well as borrowed that so I may dayly suck supplies from thee and acknowledge that I live not only by grace received but by grace renewed and while I am in this life have light only as a Lamp in the Temple which must be fed and trimmed and not as a Star in Heaven Meditation XVII Vpon a Chancery Biâ—l ONe cause and original can have but one orderly and genuine birth else what means our Saviours question Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles Or that of Sâ— James Doth a fountain at the same place send forth water sweet and bitter May it not then justly be the opinion and mind of many that the least fruit of any holy Meditation can never grow from such a bramble of Contention as a Chancery Bill And that from such a spring of Marah a sweet and delightful stream can never issue Yea who will not be ready to take up Nathanaels question Can any good thing come out of Nazareth And then what better answer can I return to such than Philips Come and see And now let me say what I have often thought That between such a Bill and most mens Confessions of sin in prayer in which they implead themselves to God there is too great a likeness in this respect that the complaints in both have more of course and form than truth and reality In the one it is Mos curiae the usage and custome of the Court for the Plaintiffe to pretend Fraud Rapines Combinations Concealments done and made to the prejudice of his right which yet he never intends to prove against the Defendant but only to make use of as a ground of inquiry And is it not thus also in the other Are there not in Prayer large Catalogues and Enumerations of sin which many charge themselves with before God as if it were their great work to justifie God in their self condemnation Pride Wantonness Hypocricy Contumacy are the black shall I say or Scarlet sins that are among others instanced in And yet what other thing is intended by them than to make up the outside of a Prayer These sins are only placed in it as dark shadows in a Picture to set it off with more advantage and to commend it rather to men than to God In the doing of the duty they think not in the least the worse of themselves for what they say against themselves nor would have others so to do else how comes it to pass that in charging themselves so deeply at Gods Tribunal there is as little appearance of shame or sorrow in their face as there was of a Cloud in the Heavens when Elijahs Servant returned this Answer that there was nothing Now though it be no part either of my work or purpose to justifie or condemn the practises of humane Judicatories which admit loose suggestions that are Arrows shot at random because that now and then they serve for a discovery Yet I cannot but condemn and abhor that the confession of sin in prayer should be as slight and overly as the complaints of a Chancery Bill and that particular sins specified in it and aggravated with hainous Circumstances should be no other than things of course done rather to lengthen out the duty then affect the heart to discover quickness of Parts rather then truth of grace What is this but to make Prayer iâ— self which should be as sweet Incense burning upon the Golden Altar to be as an Offering of Sulpher or Assafaetida What is this but to mock God the great searcher of the heart with vain words and to publish to the World how little they fear his anger or vallue his pardon for if the Confession of Sin be formal how can the seeking of forgiveness be real O holy Lord preserve me from such hypocrisie and remember not what in this kind I have been guilty of my desire is to judg my self not in word but in truth and unfeignedly to beg that I who am in the court of thy justice wholly inexcusable may in the Chancery of thy Mercy become altogether inaccusable Meditation XVIII Vpon the philosophers stone
THE Spiritual Chymist OR SIX DECADS Of Divine Meditations On several Subjects By William Spurstow D. D. Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Hackney near London My meditation of him shall be sweet Psal 104. 34. LONDON Printed in the Year 1666. The Preface to the Reader Christian Reader THe natural Sun in the Firmament whether we consider the vastness of its Globe or the splendour and dazling of its light or the variety and beneficialness of its motion and operations attended with duration and perpetuity is the top and Prince of all inanimate beings Yet the least insect that the most Artificial Microscope can discern life in is able to weigh against it and in genere entium is more perfect How excellent a being then is the Soul of man that doth not only out-strip the Sun but all other sensitive things even those that have the most lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calls them which the Oratour translates Virtutum simulacra the faint imitations of Reason Now among the many demonstrations of the excellency of the Humane Soul the operations of it do abundantly witness for it and among them to go no farther the operations of those two supream Faculties the Understanding and Will in apprehending and loving God These are more excellent than the Suns enlightning the world I choose to instance in that because the ornament beauty life of all things depend upon it for to what purpose were these things made were it not that the light of the Sun made them Proximè visibilia Yet this is nothing in compare with the Soul of man in its apprehending and loving God This speaks the Subject endued with a principle not to be transcended but only in degree in perfection You cannot have more persect operations in heaven in kind though you may in degree Angels and Souls made perfect it is true do this more intirely more perfectly more constantly and unweariedly But in knowing God and making choice of him in loving and cleaving to him the souls of holy men do according to the capacity of the present state communicate with them Now these two have a mutual aspect on each other and the happy Conjunction of Knowledge and Devotion speak the Soul Regular and Uniform in its Acts and to be in a good measure of spiritual health When Knowledge doth guide and steer as it were Devotion and Devotion doth in a kind of gratitude warm and enflame our Knowledge which otherwise is apt to chil and grow cold as experience shews in many knowing Creatures in whom the waters of the Sanctuary have put out the fire And as the separation of the love of God from the knowledge of God breeds swarms of hypocrites in the visible Church so the separation of the knowledge of God from affection to God begets a strange kind of wild fire in the Spirits of men and while they have Zeal for God which is nothing but Affection in its full stature got out of its swadling cloaths without Knowledge they are but like a Ship without a Rudder or Ballast that is a prey to every Pirate and if it miss them is carried by its own levity and the winds impetuousness on its own ruine When therefore the blessed Spirit comes to work in the soul he first enlightens the mind and sets open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gates of light and then the Will ecchoes to the Understanding and certainly that action is most congruous to so excellent a being as the Soul when the Mind takes its aime before the Affections shoot For otherwise though the action doth prove materially good yet it is no more commendation to him that doth it than to him that shuts both his eyes and then contingently hits the mark The apprehensions and affections of Mans Soul being thus regulated and conjoyned do admirably fit and dispose for that we call Meditation I mean Divine and Christian Meditation which is the off-spring of a good heart and a good head How excellent and sweet an employment this is none can know but those that have tasted it and have the skill to spiritualize all objects and providences turning every thing by a Divine Chymistry in succum sanguincm into spirit and nourishment Making the Word and Works and Ordinances of God as so many Rounds to climbe up to a more clear Vision and fervent love of God and then descending make these a clear Mirrour wherein they see themselves and to be like windows to let in that light into the private and dark recesses of the heart that discovers the hidden works of darkness and so provokes the soul to endeavour a more through purgation of it self which it is the more easily exstimulated to being under a deep sence of Gods purity and a serious affection to be like him But this duty of Divine and Spiritual Meditation is a thing that in this degenerate age the generality of Christians are utter strangers to and very hardly brought to the practice of Though there was never any time wherein the thoughts and minds of men were more busie and active and the helps inducements and encouragements more plentiful and cogent and the calls and invitations on Gods part both by his Word and Works more frequent Yet it is a work of inexpressible difficulty to bring these subtil and volatile acts of the mind to a fixation to make any considerable immoration upon those subjects that are in themselves of the greatest worth and to us of the nearest consequence Now considering that man is by God made a providential Creature and doth naturally cast up damages and gain and project the obtaining the one and avoiding the other I have therefore thought it worth the enquiring what should be the reason of their awkness to this beneficial employment and considering that Knowledge and Love are the two things that dispose for it I have thought it might arise from some defect in these and sometimes thus argued Surely this wisdom is too high for fools that men that have incrassated their souls and almost extinguished this Divine Lamp by shooting themselves so deep in sensuality and worldliness that they who have well-nigh forgot their God their own being their happiness should ever be able to mount so high as Meditation But when I considered how stupid or sottish soever these men were by debauchery or pretended to be through want of education yet they were ingeniously wicked and could in their minds lay Schemes of villany and that their phantasies were alwaies minting and forging wicked devices which they could in their second thoughts revise and polish and like a Second Edition make the Model to be Auctior nequior larger and more wicked I then saw no excuse for them that had wit enough to be wicked but none to do good And therefore looking further into the ground of it I found it arose from the second want of love to God which is the stream that sets all the Wheels of the soul
if thou wilt say Son all that is laid up is thine though thou hast little or nothing of what is laid out but I will pray Turn Lord mine eyes from beholding and my heart from affecting earthly vanities and fix all my desires upon heaven that I may look and long for it in which there is nothing that can offend but every thing that will delight and satisfie to Eternity Meditation II. Vpon a piece of Battered Plate IT is methinks a meet Emblem of a suffering Saint who by afflicting strokes may lose somewhat of his accidental beauty but nothing of his real worth In the Plate the fashion is only marred but the substance is neither diminished or embased If you bring it to the Scale it weighs as much as it did if you try by the Touchstone it is as good Silver as it was And is it not thuâ— with a Sâ—inâ— when bruised and broken with many sore pressures His lustre and repute with men mâ—y be pâ—euâ—iced and eâ—lipsed by them but not his person or his wâ—rth with God if he be weighed in his unerring Ballance he will not be found the lighteâ— if exâ—mined by â—his Test he will noâ— be esteemed the less precious It is noâ— the Cross that makes vilâ—â— but Sin not the passive evils which we suffer but the active evils which we do The one mâ—y render us unamiable to men but the other makes us unholy before God The one rase the Casket and the other makes a flow in the Jewel Hâ—ppy and wise therefore is that man who maketh Moses his choice to be his pattern in chusing Affliction rather thâ—n Sin esteeming it better to be an oppressed Hebrew that builds the Houses and Pallaces of Brick than an uncircumcised Egyptian to dwell in them for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Meditation III. Vpon the Galaxia or milky-way THe milkie way according to Aristotle is a shine or Brightness caused by the joynt raies of a multitude of imperceptible Stars and not a Meteor But it is not my purpose so much to find out or determine what it is as to meditate a little upon the place where iâ— is The Milkie way is in Heaven the true Canaan and Land of Promise in which Rivers of pleasure and sweetness do everlastingly overflow and while we are absent from it we are like Israel in the Desart apt to complain of dayly wants and to be discouraged with various fears How greatly therefore is it becoming us who profess to seek such a Country to long earnestly after it in our desires and to travel towards it in patience not fearing the difficulty of the way but animating our selves with the perfection of the end in which rest and glory which are here divided shall both meeâ— and for ever dwell together If Mare rubrum the Red Sea of Affliction be the passage Via lactea the milkie way of life and blisse will be the end And is it nor better to wade through a Sea of bloud to a Throne of glory than to glide along the smooth stream of pleasure unto an Abysse of endless misery A good end gives an amiableness to the means though never so unpleasing The bitter Potion which brings health is gladly taken down by the Patient But Poyson in a golden Cup when made as pleasing as Art and Skill can temper it can never be welcome to any who understand the sweetness of life or dread the terrour of death The way is good saith Chrysostome if iâ— be to a Feast though through a blind Lane if to an Execution not good though through the fairest Street of the City himself was bidden to a Marriage Dinner and was to go through divers Lanes and Allies crossing the high street he met with one led thorow it to be Executed he told his Auditors Non qua sed quo not the way but the term whither it led was to be thought upon Lord then let not me be anxious what the path is that I tread whether it be plain or thorny pleasant or difficult bloudy or milky so it lead to thee who art Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending of blessedness but to walk chearfully in it till I come to thee my everlasting rest Meditation IV. Vpon a Picture and a Statue IN what a differing manner is the Image and representation of the same Person brought into these two pieces of Art In the one it is effected by the soft and silent touches of the Penfill which happily convey likeness and beauty together In the other it is formed by the rough and loud stroakes of the hammer and by the deep cuttings and Sculptures of Instruments of Steel In as strange and far differing way is the heavenly Image of God formed in the souls of new Converts when first made partakers of the Divine Nature In some God Paints as I may so speak his own Likeness by a still and calm delineation of it upon the Table of their hearts In others he Carves it by afflicting them with a great measure of terrours and wounding their souls with a thorough sense both of the guilt and defilement of Sin But in this diversity of working God is no way necessitated or limited by the disposition and temper of the matter as other Agents are but is freely guided by the Counsel of his own will which is the sole rule and measure of all his Actions towards the Creature as his Word is of theirs towards him Lord therefore do with me what thou pleasest Let me be but thine and I will not prescribe thy Wisdom the way to make me thine bruise breake wound yea Kill Lord so that I may be made alive again by thy power and bear thy holy Image according to which I was first made and to which by thy grace and might only I câ—n be restored Meditation V. Vpon a Graff IT was an ancient Saying of the Râ—bbins Lumen soepernum nunquam descendit sine indumento that Divine Light doth never descend without some Cloathing While we are vailed with Mortality Truth must vail it self too that it may the better sute our capacity for in this our imperfect Estate its native Lustre is too excessive for our weak eyes and its spiritual being too refined for our narrow understandings which â—o imbibe and take in their objects by the mediation of the sences with which they have contracted an entire league and amity Observable therefore it is that in Scripture the highest and most divine Mysteries of the Gospel are imbodied in the terrene Expressions of Meâ—aphors Similitudes Allegories and so represented to our view Thus the efficacy and secresie of the New Birth is set forth by the winds blowing when and where it listeth The Resurrection of the body by Corn sown which is not quickned except it dye The Glory of Heaven by a Marriage Feast And among others our Mystical Union with Christ by
my lost time who have joyned the Morning of the Task and the Evening of the day together These and such like thoughts will sin when it is Read as it is Written and Accented in the Conscience produce But a general â—nowledg and sight of it without such particularities will neither mâ—ke nor leave any impressions but what are both slight and confused Do thou therefore holy God teach me to understand the errors of my wayes aright and by the light of thy spirit make me to see that Circumstances in sins are not Motes but Beames and greatly intend their guilt if not their bulke That so I may mourn for those sins which Carnal Men conceive to be but so many black nothings and abhor my self for those Corruptions in which they indulge themselves Meditation XX. Vpon a debauched Minister IT is a Truth though it hath been questioned by some and denied by others that the Function of a Minister is Formally executed by Gifts which are not made effectual by his Personal Sanctity but by the grace of God in the hearer The one may move Morally but it is the other which worketh Efficaciously and for any to conceive otherwise is a smatch of Donatisme who made the validity of Ordinances wholly to depend upon the real goodness of those that Administred them which opinion if it were true it must necessarily follow that there must be an absoluâ—e knowledge in the People of discerning unfeigned Grace in the heart of the Minister from all pretended semblances and showes or else what comfort can they have in the validity of his Acts while this suspicion abides upon them that is if he be not really holy all that he can do is no other then a Nullity we must then distinguish between the grace of gifts which God bestowes for the good of the Church and the gift of grace which he gives for the good of the Soul of him who is partaker of it By the one of these a Man may become a Minister but without the conjunction of both he can never be a good Minister Holiness then as it is that which no Man can be well without so a Minister least of all it being the great end of his Office to turn Men from sin to God and to draw Men up from earth yea from the danger of Hell to Heaven And should he not do what he Teacheth and second his Doctrine with his Example he must needs sin against his Calling which alwayes heightneth the notoriety of the fact No sins being so inexcusably sinfull as those that are committed against Mens Callings For a Steward to be a Thief for a Physician to be a Murderer for an Ambassador trusted with the Affairs of his Prince to be a Traitour are Crimes of greater Infamy in them then in another How then can the impieties of a Minister but be above all others by so much the worst by how much his Calling is above all others the best what then can be more prodigious then for him who should be Gods Mouth to the People to have his Tongue set on Fire of Hell and not touched with a Coal from the Altar or for him whom God hath honoured with that high imployment of winning Souls to be an accursed Appollyon in undoing and destroying them by his nefarious and impure living If he that shall break the least Commandment and Teach Men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven what then shall he be called who breaks the greatest Commandment and Teacheth Men so surely I scarce know what to call him who hath of a Minister thus transformed himself into a Monster he is not a Star in Christs right hand but in the Dragons Tail which drew many from Heaven and cast them down upon the Earth He is amongst the Prophets the Simeon rightly called Niger not for his Complexion but for his Conversation he is in the House and Temple of God not as the Priests which did bear the Ark but as the Beasts which drew it and shook it For if the sins of any Man do loosen and endanger the Foundations of Christian Religion it is the wickedness of Ministers which makes many to question whether there be an Heaven an Hell or a God And though it may possibly now and then fall out that the Seed of Divine Truth like Corn sown by a leprous hand grow up into some fruit yet how small is the good that is wrought by this Doctrine to the great hurt that is done by the dissolute life of such a Minister is it likely that he who in the Pulpit pleads for honour to be given to Christs Person obedience to be yielded to his Precepts faith to be exercised in his Promises and when he is out of it gâ—insayes all that he hath spoken in his sensual practises should win many Disciples to Christ will he be ever much hearkened unto who decries Drunkenness Swearing wantonness as the high-Rodes and Pathes to destruction and yet turns not his own feet from walking in them will it not be said unto him Physician heal thy self or thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thy own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moâ—e that is in thy Brothers eye But what ever the issue be whether Men hearken oâ— not hearken yet will the condition of such a Minister be most sad in the great day if he be instrumental in the saving of any yet they shall be none of his Crown or Joy nor in the least extenuate his misery but aggravate it in that he hath been onely to them as a standing Statue to point out the way to heaven not a living Companion to walk with them in it How much then will it augment his pains and anguish when the blood of many misled and lost Soules must fall upon his head and he be condemned as the cursed Murderer of them O that these few words might prick the hearts of such who have worn the badg of God and yet done the Devils work who have been his Servants by Office and his Enemies by Practice that they might timely think both of saving themselves and others However blessed God help me to do the Ofsice of a Minister and keep me from the punishment of a Minister Pardon mine inabiliâ—ies in thy Service and deliver me from scandalous sins Enable me to bear Reproach for Christ but let me never be a re-Proach to Christ or his Gospel Meditation XXI Vpon the Golden Calfe and the Braâ—en Serpent THe Makers of these two Images were Moses and Aaron such a pair of Brethren as History cannot parallel for Eminency and whose Names out-shine greatly all others of the like alliance that have an honourable mention in the Book of God Where are there two Brethren in that Sacred Chronicle so renowned for sundry Miracles done by them or so highly dignified by Titles given to them by the Spirit of God as they Moses being stiled signally the Servant of God
excellent demeanour of himself at the Bar well-nigh overcomes Agrippa upon the Bench to be a Christian O how careful then should every man be who in what condition soever he stands is a part of the body of humane society to abhor evil and to cleave to that which is good When the effects both of the one and other are not terminated in our selves but do more or less benefit or hurt others as well as our selves Meditation XXIII Vpon a Multiplying Glass WHat a vain and fictitious happiness would that be if a poor man who had only a small piece of money should by the looking upon it through a multiplying Glass please himself in believing that he is now secure from the fears of pressing wants his single piece being suddenly minted into many pounds with which he can readily furnish himself with fuell to warm him cloaths to cover him and food to satisfie him But alas when he puts forth his hand to take a supply from what he beholds he can feel nothing of what he sees and when the Glass is gone that presented him with so much Treasure he can then see nothing but his first pittance which also becomes the less desirable because of the disappointment of his hopes Upon what better foundation doth the felicity of the greatest part of men stand which is not fixed upon any true and spiritual good as its proper Basis but upon the specious semblances of a corrupt and mutable fancy What is it that rich men do not promise themselves who conceive riches to be a strong Tower They think they can laugh at Famine and when others like the poor Egyptians whose Substance is exhausted sell themselves and their children for food they can buy their bread at any rate If Enemies rise up against them they question not but they can purchase a peace or a victory If Sickness come oh how can they please themselves in thinking that their Purse can command the Physicians skill and the Drugsters shops Elixars Cordials Magisterial powders they conceive beforehand will be prescribed both as their dyet and Physick And every avenue of the body at which the disease or death may threaten to enter shall be so fortified as that both of them shall receive an easie and quick repulse Now what are all these representations but the impostures of the glass of fancy which like the colours in the Rainbow have more of shew thaâ— of Entity Doth not Solomon counsel men not to labour â—o be rich And expostulate with them Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Doth not our Saviour call them deceitful Riches And Paul uncertain Riches What then can they contribute to the real happiness of any man Surely the transient sparks that with much difficulty are forced from the flint may as soon add light to the body of the Sun as Riches can yield any solid comfort to the soul or keep it from lying down in the bed of darkness and sorrow Away then from me ye flattering vanities and gilded nothings of the world get you to the Bats and to the Moles and try what beauteous rayes you can dart into their eyes I will hence no more behold you in the Glass of Fancy but in the Glass of the Word which discovers that ye are alwaies vanity and vexation no objects of trust in the times of strait or price of deliverance in the day of wrath It is methinks observable that four times in Scripture this saying is repeated That Riches and Treasures profit nothing in the day of wrath twice in the Book of Proverbs and then again by two Prophets Ezekiel and Zephaniah Doubtless these holy men knew what an universal proness there is in the minds of most to exalt Riches above Righteousness and to think that by them Heaven might be purchased and the flames of Hell bribed How else could such words ever drop from the mouths of any that they had made a Covenant with Death and were at an agreement with Hell to pass from them But Lord keep me from imagining to save my soul by Merchandize or of entituling my self any other way to the Inheritance of Heaven than by the Bloud of Christ who is my Life my Riches my Rejoycing and sure Confidence Meditation XXIV Vpon Gravity and Levity THe Stoick Philosophy was famous for Paradoxes strange Opinions improbable and besides common conceit for which it was much admired by some and as greatly controuled and taxed by others Howbeit not Stoicisme only but every Art and course of life and learning hath some Paradoxes or other but Christianity hath many more which seem like nothing less than truth and yet are as true as strange What can be more contrary to the Principles and Maxims of Philosophers than to hold that there is a regress from a total privation to an habit It was that which the Epicureans and Stoicks derided in Paul when he preached the Resurrection from the dead and yet Christians build all their happiness and confidence upon it What can seem to carry more of a contradiction in it than that saying of our Saviour He that will lose his life shall find it And yet it is a truth of that importance that whosoever follows not Christs counsell will certainly miss of life What will happily appear more novel and strange than that which I shall now adde by inverting the common Axiom and affirming this as a truth Levia tendunt deorsum gravia sursum Light things fall downwards and heavy ascend upwards The lighter they are the lower they sink and the heavier they are the higher they rise and yet this Riddle hath a truth in it In Scripture the wicked that must fall as low as hell are resembled to things of the greatest Levity as well as vileness Dust Chaff Smoke Fume Scum and the Saints that must ascend as high as Heaven are likened to things of weight as well as worth To Wheat the heaviest of which is the best to Gold which is of Metals the weightiest as well as the richest to Gems and precious Stones that are valued by the number of the Carrats which they weigh as well as by their lustre with which they sparkle Yea God hath his Ballance to weigh men and their actions as well as his Touchstone to try them He is a God of knowledge by whom actions are weighed saith Hannah in her Song And if he find great men a lye and vanity upon the Ballance he will not spare them What a severe Judgment did God execute upon Belshazzar who being weighed and found wanting was in the same night cast out both from his Kingdom and from the Land of the living And what a dreadful Sentence hath Christ foretold shall come from his mouth in the great day against those who have made a vain and empty profession of his Name who are bid to depart from him and go accursed into everlasting fire not for doing evil against his but for not doing of good
shadow of death should ever be passed thorough without any distracting fears without heart breaking sorrows yea with great rejoycings in such tribulations It is true that some there be who like sullen Hawks live upon the frets and bear many of these things out of the stoutness of their stomack and their natural courage But alas this is not to suffer as a Christian who doth not suffer out of obstinacy but out of Conscience who is not supported by his own inherent strength but by the power of God which puts forth its self in such glorious effects oft times as that it makes a greater change in the Prison for the better than ever the vilest Prison can make in the Prisoner for the worse Is it not the presence of the King that makes the Court let the House be never so mean where he resides What then can that place be less than a Pallace where the Presence of God dwells in a special manner He that shall read in the Book of the Revelations of a City or place that had no Temple in it nor had no Sun or Moon to shine in it and then break off would sooner conjecture that he was beginning the description of some forlorn place under the Northern Pole than of the heavenly Jerusalem But when he shall understand that God and the Lamb are the Temple of it and the glory of God and the Lamb are the Eternal Light shining in it he will then say as an awaked Jacob Surely this is none other but the house of God and the place where himself dwelleth Such like thoughts must that man have of a Prison who knows no more of it than what it is in appearance a place of bondage solitude darkness and sore wants but he who hath in this condition once experienced the presence of God in it how differently will he speak of it Have not many of the Saints when shut up in a Dungeon dated their Letters to their Friends from their Pallace from their delectable Orchard from their delicious Paradise Have they not gloried in their bonds as being Gods Freemen though mans Prisoners Have they not in their solitude been ravished with the sweetness of that Communion they have had with God who alone hath been better than a thousand Friends Have they not been filled with hidden Manna in their souls when their bodies have been pinched with the sharpness of Famine Have they not in the midst of their Conflicts cried out If it be thus sweet to suffer for Christ how full of Joy unspeakable will it be to reign with him May I not then say to this timorous Christian as God did once to Israel Fear not to go down into Egypt For I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will surely bring thee up again Fear not to go into a Prison in which God will be with you and out of which he will deliver you with joy and triumph It matters not what your pressures be if God put under his Everlasting Arms or who your Enemies be if he be your Friend or what your sorrows be if he be your Comforter And this I may adde that commonly in the greatest straits he sheweth the greatest love as waters run strongest in the narrowest passages As the sufferings of Christ saith Paul abound in us so our Consolation aboundeth by Christ O therefore say as David did Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Meditation XXXVI Vpon the motion of the Sun on the Dyall IT was the saying of one who was none of the least of the Philosophers to him that asked him what he was born for That it was to contemplate the Sun But though it be not the end of mans breath yet it may well be the object of his thoughts in regard both of its beauty and motion Holy David takes notice of them both in the same Psalm in which he compared the Sun for its Lustre to a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber cloathed in such shining Array as may draw the eyes of Spectators towards him And for its swiftness to a strong Champion who runs his prescribed course both speedily and unweariedly Tully in his Academicall Questions saith Tanta incitatione fertur ut ejus celeritas quanta sit ne cogitari quidem posset It is whirled about with that vehemency that the greatness of the Suns speed cannot easily be imagined Is it not then a Riddle that at the same time when it travels thousands of miles in the Heavens it should make so slow a motion and progress on the Dyall as not to move above the breadth of an inch or two To the quickest eye its motion is imperceptible and it so moves as we can only say it hath moved not that it doth Now from whence comes this inequality but from the vast disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth the one being but as a Center or small prick to an immense Circumference O how happy and regular also would the lives and actions of men be if after the same manner they were moved to heavenly and earthly objects To the one with a swiftness like to that of the Sun in the Firmament To the other with an insensibleness like to that of the Sun upon the Dyall Surely such a disproportion doth the differing worth and excellency between the one and the other justly challenge in our pursuit of them Is it not meet that he who casts a single glance of his eye to the Creature should bestow a thousand looks on his Saviour And when he creeps to one as a Snail to fly to the other as the Eagle to the Carkass He alone moves to God as much as he ought who moves to him as much as he can and strives to repair the imperfection of that motion with a real dislike and regret of the slowness of his own heart to the best of goods But alass if the rule by which men walk must be thus bounded or dilated according to the object to which they move where shall we find that person that thus proportions the out-goings of his soul in his care desires or industry If the standard and measure of goodness should be taken from the unweariedness of mens travels from the strength of their affections or from the fixed bent of their resolutions to obtain what they design to themselves as their end Who must not then put the Crown of blessedness upon the heâ—d of the Creature which ought to be set at the foot of the Creator Who must not then conclude that it is better building Tabernacles here than seeking a Country which is above Do not men contract their hearts to the things of Heaven and dilate them to what is below Do they not run and pant to the very breathing out of their souls after perishing vanities when they cannot be drawn to set one foot towards spiritual and
wickedness Is it not solly to refuse the warm breast and to suck the Milk from the bottle when it is dispirited and hath lost both its warmth and lively taste and what less difference is there between a Sermon in the Pulpit and in the Prâ—ss Is it not also wickedness to offer Sacriledge for Sacrifice and to rob God of one Duty to pay him another to withhold the greater and to seem Conscientious in the less Are they not in thus doing fures de se thieves to their own Soules depriving themselves of the profit of both while they are willfull neglecters of each Be wise therefore O Christians in keeping up an high esteem of the Word Preached and be alwayes as Babes for hunger and desire after it though not for knowledg and understanding in it And remember that there is no way so dangerous to lessen your desires as to keep your selves fasting from it For the Word of God still creates new appetites as it satisfies the old and enlargeth the capacities of the Soul as it fills it Use good Books as Apothecaries do their Succedanea one simple to supply the want of another when the Preacher cannot be had then make use of them but let it rather be to stay the stomach in the absence of an Ordinance then to satisfie it And when you enjoy both say as Aristotle sometimes did of the Rhodian and Lesbian Wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter Holy Books are good and relish well but the Word Preached is more sweet the one is as the Wine the Bridegroom provided at the Marriage Feast and the other as that which Christ made which was easily discerned by the Governour who knew not whence it was to be by far the better Meditation XLII Vpon Mixtures THe wise God hath so tempered the whole Estate of Man in this life as that it consisteth altogether of Mixtures There is no sweet without sower nor sower without sweetness All simples in any kinde would prove dangerous and be as uncorrected drugs which administered unto the Patient would not recover him but destroy him Constant Sorrow without any Joy would swallow us up and simple Joy without any Grief would puff us up both extreames would agree alike in our ruine he being in as dangerous a case who is swolne with Pride as he who is overwhelmed with Sorrow This Mixture then though it seem penall and prejudicial to our comfort is yet Medicinall and is by God as a wise Physician ordered as a Diet most sutable to our Condition and if we did but look into the grounds of it we shall find cause to acknowledge Gods wise Providence and to frame our hearts to a submission of his will without murmuring at what he doth For have we not two Natures in us the Spirit and Flesh the New and Old Man have we not twins in our Womb our Counter-lustings and our Counterwillings Are we not as Plants that are seated between the two different Soiles of Earth and Heaven Is there not then a necessity of a mixed Diet that is made up of two contraries The Physician is not less loyal to his Prince if he give to him an unpleasing Vomit and to a poor Man a cheering Cordiall because his Applications are not according to the dignity of the Person but to the quality of the Disease neither is God the less kind when he puts into our hand the bitter Cup of asfliction to drink of then when he makes us to caste of the Flaggons of his sweetest wine Paul his Thorn in the Flesh what ever the meaning of it be was usefull to keep down that tumor of pride which the abundance of Revelations might have exposed him unto and so joyned together they were like the rod and the Honey which enlightned Jonathans eyes when he had tasted the sweetness of the one God would have him feel the smart of the other At the same time also when God blessed Jacob he Crippled him that he might not think above what was meet of his own strength or ascribe his prevailing to the vehemency of his Wrâ—stling rather then to Gods gracious condescention Yea who is it that hath not experienced such Mixtures to be the constant Methods which he useth towards his dearest Children what are the lives of the best Christians but as a Rainbow which consists half of the moisture of a Cloud and half of the light and beames of the Sun Weeping saith David may endure for a Night but Joy cometh in the Morning And what other thing doth the Apostle speak of himself when he gives the Corinthians an account of his Condition As dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowfull and yet alwayes rejoycing as poore yet making many rich as having nothing but yet possessing all things Blessed then is he who doth without repining yield himself to the dispose of Divine Providence rather then accuse it and looks not so much to what at present is gratefull to the sense as to what for the future will be profitable to the whole For in these Mixtures Magna latent beneficia 〈◊〉 non fulgeant great advantages do lye hid though not shine forth Hereby we are put upon the exercise of all those Graces which are accommodated to our imperfect state here below whose acts shall not be compleated in Heaven but shall all cease as being not capacitated for a Fruition and yet are of great use while we are on this side Heaven How necessary is Patience to bear up the Soul under trials that it fret not against God who inflicts them How greatly doth Hope temper any present souer by its expectation of some happy change that may and will follow and so worketh joy in the midst of sadness How even to wonder doth Faith manifest its power in all distresses when it apprehends that there are no degrees of extremity unrelieveable by the Arm of God or inconsistent with his compassions and friendship Again such Mixtures serve to work in us a greater hatred of sin and an earnest longing after Glory in which our life light joyes are all pure and everlasting Our life is without any seed of death our light without any shadow of darkness and our joyes endless Hallelujahs without the interruption of one sigh Therefore are we burdened in our Earthly Tabernacle that we should the more groan to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven Therefore yet have we the remainders of sin by which we are unlike God and the first-fruits onely of the spirit by which we resemble him that we might long and wait for the Adoption and Redemption wherein what ever is blended and imperfect shall be done away When not to sin which is here onely our Duty shall be the top branch of our reward and blessedness O holy Lord I complain not of my present lot for though it be not free from mixture yet it is
greatly differing from what others find and feel whose lines are not fallen in so fair a place But still I say when shall I dwell in that blessed Country where sorrows dye and joys cannot Into which Enemy never entred and from which a Friend never parted When shall I possess that Inheritance which is a Kingdom for its greatness and a City for its beauty where there is Society without Envy and rich Communications of good without the least diminution Meditation XLIII Vpon Time and Eternity THe two Estates of this and the other World are measured by Time and by Eternity as their just and proper measures there being nothing in this World which is not as transient as Time nor in the other which is not as fixed and lasting as Eternity How inexpressibly then must the good and evil the happiness and the misery of those two Estates differ from eacâ— other What is the duration of all earthly greatness in respect of the stability of heavenly glory but as a flash of lightning to a standing Sun in the Firmament or as a spark ascending from a furnace to a never setting Star What are the most fiery trials of this life either for intension or length unto the everlasting burnings and scorchings of hell but as the soft and gentle heat of a blushing face unto the constant flames and torments of the bowels What are Racks Stone Collick Strangury Convulsions heaped together into an extream horrour but as the simple grudgings of an Ague to the desperate rage and anguish which the least bite of that worm that dies not creates in the lowest faculty of the soul There are additions to things which are limited and diminuent terms of that to which they are annexed and contain in them as Logicians speak oppositum in opposito one opposite in another He that saith a dead man or a painted Lion by saying more saith less than if he had said but a man or a Lion only without any such additions it is all one in effect as if he had said no man no Lion For a dead man is not a man neither is a painted Lion a Lion Such are the additions of Time which put to good or evil expresse less than if nothing had been added He that saith happiness for a season or sorrow for a time saith less than if he had said happiness or sorrow only For perfect happiness or sorrow cannot be circumscribed in the narrow limits of Time no more than Immensity in the points of a place What is happiness that will expire but misery at a distance Or what is sorrow that endures only for a time but an evil supported by hope But adde Eternity to good or evil and it makes the good to be insinitely better and the evil to be infinitely worse Can I then do less than wonder that men who carry eternal souls in their bosoms such as are of kin to Seraphims yea advanced to the participation of the Divine Nature that are the immediate Subjects of Endless woe or bliss should yet so live Aâ— si fabula esset omnis eternitatas as if Eternity were a fable as if they had neither God to serve or souls to save May I not say be astonished O heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate as the Lord himself did at Israels folly What greater stupidity can there be than this which most are guilty of to busie themselves like Martha about perishing trifles and to neglect the one thing which is necessary To be thoughtfull of things below and seldom think of heaven till death summon them to leave Earth To make Salvation the by-work of their lives and the fulfilling the apperites of the flesh their chiefest task and care Were it not a strange thing if a man who is to be judged on the morrow and to receive the sentence either of a cruel death or of a rich and honourable estate could not keep in mind the concernments of the next approaching day without tying some Scarlet thread upon his finger as a significant Ceremony to remember him Or the writing of some Caveats upon the posts of the Prison which might hint unto him what danger his life is in Is it not much more strange that the weighty matters of eternal life or eternal death should not by their own greatness press the heart of man unto a constant remembrance of them especially when he knoweth not what a day may bring forth Can the miscarriage of such a person be other than dreadful when their follies as well as their pains shall make them to gnash their teeth and to curse themselves for the neglect of that great Salvation which hath been often tendred them in the Gospel When they shall feel everlastingly what they could never be perswaded for to fear When they shall be convinced that at a far cheaper rate they might have been Saints in Heaven than Salamanders in Hell O that I could therefore awaken and excite all those whom the present enjoyments of the world serve as Opium to cast them into a deep sleep and will happily be angry with those that seek to raise them out of it though they keep them from perishing in it And how can I better do it than in St. Chrysostomes expressions to this purpose Suppose a man saith he much desirous of sleep and in his perfect mind had an offer made of one nights sweet rest upon condition to be punished an hundred years for it would he except of his sleep upon such terms Now do not they who would be loath to be reputed fools do far worse that for the short fruition of a few transient delights hazard a double Eternity the loss of an Eternity of blessedness and the sustaining of an Eternity of miseries for what other proportion can all earthly things bear to heavenly in respect of their duration than a few beatings of the pulse or twinklings of the eye unto Myriads of Ages Be then timely wise ye worldlings in a frequent consideration of your eternal being that you may not pass your life away in a dream of happiness and awake in the horrour of a begun Eternity in misery Say unto your selves are we not in the world as the Child conceived is in the womb not to abide there but to come out in a due time to a more full and free life Why then do we fondly think of building Tabernacles here Why do we so please our selves in our present condition as to be wholly regardless of our future Is not death such a combate as we never enter into but once and therein are either saved or shin eternally Why do we then make little or no provision against what we know will and must certainly follow Do we think that our glory shall descend after us and screen us from Gods siery indignation Will our riches purcâ—ase heaven or bribe hell Will the first-born of our body be accepted for the sin of our soul What is it
afford shelter So is not God who is a full store-house as well as a free refuge a Sun as well as a Shield Secondly By way of Eminency all perfections whatsoever either for degree or kind which put a worth or value upon the Creature are to be found insinitely more in God Is a Rock strong and dashing in pieces all resistance made against it God is incomparably more He saith Job is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Is a Rock durable and not subject to change by the many revolutions of Ages that pass over it God is far more immutable his yeares are throughout all Generations he is the same yeseerday and to day and for ever In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Is the shadow of a great Rock desirable in a weary Land to bear off the scorchings of the Sun and to revive the fainting Traveller what a covert and hiding place then is God against all stormes and heates whatsoever raised either by the rage of Men or by the Estuations of a troubled Conscience and fomented by the Malice of Satan Is a Rock of an awfull aspect for its height and apt to work upon the head of him that looks down from the top of it How great then is God whose glory is above the Heavens whose faithfulness reacheth unto the Cloudes whose righteousness is like the great Mountaines and whose Judgments are a great deep And now methinks I may say to my Soul as David did unto his Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Cannot God keep him in perfect peace whose Minde is stayed on him is not he a very present help in the times of trouble what evil can befall me under which his everlasting Armes cannot support me What Seas of Tryalls can overwhelm when God shall set me upon a Rock that is higher than I As I my self cannot climbe it so neither can my Enemies power ever reach it A Believer can onely be wounded by his own feares as the Diamond is onely cut by its own dust Peter sunk not till his Faith failed him if his confidence had risen as the Winde and Billowes did he would have greatly honoured his Lord as his Rock upon whom he was built and have been highly commended by him as he was for the good Confession he made of him But O blessed Saviour if Peter cry out Save Master I perish how much more shall I who fall far short of his little Faith and am apt to fear not onely in the deep Seas but in the shallow Brookes not onely when the Waves roar but when the petty Streames murmur Do thou therefore holy Lord teach me to know what a Rock thou art and cause all thy glory to pass before me as thou didst before Moses that so I may see every attribute of thine as so many Clefts in the Rock to which I may run in time of danger and rejoyce to find how I am compassed about with thy power wisdome faithfulness and goodness from whence more sure comfort will arise than if a numerous host of Angells should pitch their Tents round about me Meditation LIII Vpon a Counterfeit piece of Coyne VVHit Physicians say of some Diseases Illi morbi sunt pericâ—losissimi qui sanitatem Imitantur That they are most dangerous dangerous which seem to imitate and come nearest unto health may be applyed fitly to adulterous and spurious Coynes that the greater resemblance and likeness they have to the true and genuine the more pernicious and destructive they are to the Publick wasting though insensibly not onely private Estates but the common Treasure and Riches of a Nation And therefore the falsifying of Coyn which beares the Image or Armes of the Prince as the general Warrant to ratifie the goodness of it hath been made a Crime of the same Complexion with the highest attempt or act done against his Person the same Capital Punishment being inflicted upon him that is found guilty of the one as is upon him that is guilty of the other What can be done more to deter any from such Practises then the loss of Name Estate Life in a gastly and ignominious death and yet these severities which should be as the Boundaries at the foot of the Mountain to keep all from offending are insufficient to restrain many whom the love of gain and the hope of secrecy do embolden to run a sad hazard that they may enjoy the sweet Secrecy in sinning though in some respect it exâ—enuates a sin as making it less scandalous and less contagious yet it is a powerfull attractive to incline to the Commission of a sin Josâ—phs Mistriss was most vehement in her solliciting of him to folly when none of the Men of the house were within The Harlot in the Proverbs makes that as her Plea to the Young Man to hearken unto her That the good Man is not at home he is gone a long journey he hath taken a bag of Money with him and will come at the day appointed It was that which put an edge upon the Covetousness of Achan to take the goodly Babylonish Garment the two hundred shekels of Silver and the wedge of Gold that he could do it without the privity of any so that none could charge him with the breach of that strict Command which God had given of not taking the accursed thing least they make themselves accursed and the Camp of Israel accursed and trouble it Usually when shame and punishment are the sole Motives to deter from sin the secrecy of doing it by which both may be declined swayes prevailingly to the commission of it But how far more presumptuous are they who adulterate not the Coynes of Princes but the Truths of God and stamp his Name upon their Inventions to give a Credit and value unto them Have such workers of iniquity any darkness and shadow of death where they may hide themselves Do they think that though Kings cannot discover those oft times that violate the Dignities of their Crown that they also can escape the knowledge of the most High or is not he as jealous of his Word which he hath magnified above all his Name as they are of every piece that carries their Image and Inscription upon it hath he not declared himself to be against those that Prophesie the deceits of their own heart and use their Tongues and say the Lord saith Yeâ— hath he not denounced the most dreadful of Curses against all Embasers or Clippers of his Heavenly Coyn To the one he threatens all the Plagues that are written in the Word of Truth and for the other he shall take away his part out of the Book of Life out of the holy City and from the things that are written in the Book of God Who can read such a Sentence and not tremble at the thoughts of it And yet though God be as Bernard speakes Sapiens Nummâ—larius qui non